Galatians 5:16-23 teaches that at any moment we are either walking by the Holy Spirit or according to the sin nature. Walking by the Spirit, enjoying fellowship with God, walking in the light are virtually synonymous. During these times, the Holy Spirit is working in us to illuminate our minds to the truth of Scripture and to challenge us to apply what we learn. But when we sin, we begin to live based on the sin nature. Our works do not count for eternity. The only way to recover is to confess (admit, acknowledge) our sin to God the Father and we are instantly forgiven, cleansed, and recover our spiritual walk (1 John 1:9). Please make sure you are walking by the Spirit before you begin your Bible study, so it will be spiritually profitable.

James is one of the most profound little epistles in all of the New Testament, and the writer is writing it specifically to challenge the believers he is writing to to keep pressing on to spiritual maturity. No matter how difficult is it, we have to keep pushing on.

We have two options in life. Job says that man was born to trouble as the sparks fly upwards. We know that we can’t avoid difficulty, hardship and trouble in life, and to think that we can is to live in a dream world. So we have two options. We can either live in the midst of that adversity and convert that adversity to stress in our souls, where we are living in carnality unstable in all our ways, or we can learn how to use what God has given us in grace so that we can grow to spiritual maturity and avoid the instability that comes from converting adversity into stress.